A broadcasting mode in which, in the middle of a broadcast program, the program is relayed to and broadcasted on another channel is referred to as an event relay (program relay). For example, it is often the case that programs which take a long time to broadcast, such as high school baseball games and the Olympic Games, are event relayed. Further, an event relay may be carried out when an emergency broadcast is broken into a program, or when a program is extended and not completed in scheduled broadcast time. Operational regulations on event relays are described in Fascicle 2, Vol. 4, Section 2, Part 24 and Fascicle 3, Vol. 7, Section 8, Part 8.5 of “Operational Guidelines for Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting” in ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses) standards “TR-B14”.
Conventionally, in a case in which the channel of a broadcast program being recorded is switched in accordance with an event relay, there is a broadcast program recording apparatus with a function of switching the channel to be recorded automatically following the event relay.
However, the conventional broadcast program recording apparatus has, in a case in which an event relayed broadcast program is to be recorded, a problem in that recording of a portion of the program is missed at the time of switching from a relay source channel to a relay destination channel, due to a delay (time lag) and the like caused by controlling the channel switching with the use of one tuner. Further, depending on the timing of the channel switching, the beginning of the next broadcast program may be recorded.
Conventionally, techniques have been proposed for preventing a period of time for which no continued program can be viewed from being produced in the case of performing a temporary broadcasting service (an event relay) when a broadcast program is being viewed with a time shift (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-354361).
Further, techniques have been proposed in which even if the reception condition of a main broadcast to be recorded deteriorates and makes recording impossible, video of a sub-broadcast in simul broadcast is utilized to produce continuous consistent content in content playback (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-354570).
Furthermore, techniques have been proposed for achieving seamless playback avoiding loss of data without overlap recording of some data on each recording reproduction apparatus in a case in which multiple recording reproduction apparatuses equipped with recording media are used to record continuous data (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-298501).
As described above, the conventional broadcast program recording apparatus has, in a case in which an event relayed broadcast program is to be recorded, a problem in that recording of a portion of the program is missed at the channel switching. Further, depending on the timing of the channel switching, the beginning of another broadcast program (the next program to be broadcasted on the relay source channel) may be recorded.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-354361 described above, the event relayed program can be viewed with a time shift. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-354361 has not solved the problem that recording of a portion of the program is missed at the time of the channel switching in the event relay. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-354570 fails to disclose any techniques related to event relays, and is thus unable to solve the above-described problem specific to recording of the event relayed broadcast program.